Matchmeddling
by periodic-prose
Summary: Athrun Zala was asked a small favor: To help the friend of a friend find someone special. What will he do when he finds himself falling for the person he's trying to set up? AxCx?, KxL. More to appear later.
1. Revenge as my Reason

**Yup yup, that's right. Another multi-chapter, by moi.**

* * *

He likes... water sports, meeting new people and long walks in the park."

"No."

"This one's... I don't know how to pronounce this profession."

"Nope."

"This one's... I can't pronounce this name."

"Definitely not."

"What was wrong with the first one?"

"His profile sounded was too scripted." Cagalli tossed the idea. "And I can't spend a night with someone who's name I can't pronounce."

"Well... maybe it'll be a topic of conversation."

"Great! Even better, I can spend half the time LEARNING his name."

Lacus sighed and swiveled in the grey chair to face her disgruntled friend, who was flumped onto her bed, facing the ceiling, mindlessly flipping through a magazine.

"Cagalli, you're not helping."

"I know that, Lacus." She replied plainly, eyes still scanning the magazine pages.

"I thought you were serious about this!" Her friend protested.

"I am." She shrugged, still not sitting up, or looking at the desperate woman seated before her.

"Doesn't seem like it to me..." Lacus taunted in a sing-song voice.

Sighing, Cagalli swung her legs off the bed and strolled over to the computer, turning it off.

"First of all, I'll FIND someone. Secondly, I'm NOT going to do it online." She responded firmly. Suddenly she was regretting the decision she'd made a week ago, to make an effort to "find someone".

That's right. She, Cagalli Yula Athha, was going to try to find someone. Forget letting love find you, she was going to take initiative! Not that she felt lonely or anything horribly needy such as that.

In fact, she had no idea when it had happened.

Perhaps when her brother started dating her best friend, she felt out of the loop?

No, she was genuinely happy for them. They looked adorable together.

When she had showed up for a company reception, without an escort when everyone else had one?

No... All the escorts seemed pretty superficial anyways. Nothing to envy on that account.

How about when all her relatives, except the ones that were too young to speak, had commented on how she was "slipping past that eligible age, dear...", at the recent family reunion.

Ah yes... that was probably it. In her mind, she tried to reason it out as some sort of sick effort to increase the size of their already-too-large-for-her-tastes extended family. At the same time, she felt this burning urge to, put bluntly, shut them up. All of them.

Hence she swallowed half her pride for the sake of, shutting up relatives? We'll just call it a type of revenge... and told Lacus that she thought it was time, she entered the dating market, or whatever they called it. Lacus was thrilled: It was about time in her opinion. And of course, it would just be terribly fun to watch.

Back to reality, the silky, pale haired girl was tapping her lip with her finger thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, there is one..."

"Who've you got in mind?" Cagalli asked, emerging out of her reflection hopefully.

"Athrun."

"... Isn't he your ex-boyfriend?" The blond raised a confused eyebrow. "You really want to just throw him at me?"

"No, not ex-boyfriend. Just a childhood friend. And I don't mean date HIM, I mean get him to recommend someone." Lacus shrugged.

"And he could help because?..." Cagalli rolled her hand in a motion, as if to prompt Lacus to follow up the thought with an explanation.

"Because, that's what he does for a living?" Lacus' smile widened gradually, while she shrugged with her left hand and began to laugh. Reaching over to her cordless phone, she nimbly lifted it out of the base and hit the third number on her speed dial.

* * *

Athrun sat at his office, mildly amused at his current situation. Imagine him, a top student all his life, had obtained his bachelor's in just 2 years, and another 2 year pre-mature business school graduate, of course none of this accounted for the countless grades he had skipped as a child, choosing... this, matchmaking, as a living?

Slightly unbelievable, yes?

Or not. After all, it seemed that it was a profitable business. Not everyone would always need say, insurance, or furniture. So why sell that?

But relationships? Ah, people always seemed to be looking for those.

As for the criticism, he mainly shrugged it off. When old friends joked that "You're so pretty, you'll just make all your female clients fall in love with you, and turn the male ones gay." and parents had protested that "So many years of high education! For this!"

Well... they all shut their mouths when they saw how much money he was making.

There was a bit of an art to it. You had to weight emotions, preferences and of course, business, to be successful.

As for any other reasons he had, well they were his own.

Now when he had chosen this career, never had he imagined he'd be of use to anyone he personally knew. Everyone he was familiar with, seemed content in being single, or perfectly capable of finding love on their own.

Hence, when Lacus called his cell phone on that sunny Saturday afternoon, he couldn't help but ask her to repeat the question.

_"I need you to do some matchmaking for me."_

_"You what?"_

_"I need you to do some matchmaking for me... for a friend."_

Ah... that made more sense.

Since she was Lacus' friend, of course decided to handle this case personally instead of delegating the responsibility to one of the people that worked for him...

And now here he was. Sitting in his office, and waiting for this mystery girl to show up at his door.

* * *

Cagalli stopped in front of the address that had been scrawled onto neatly folded piece of pink stationary. Typical Lacus.

The building was... larger than she had expected. Truly, she had vehemently protested when Lacus first told her she was sending her to a professional agency, and only calmed down... slightly after it was explained that this Athrun guy, himself, would be handling the case. The taste of swallowing the other half of her pride was still terribly bitter though.

Uneasily, she inched open the door. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed that she was doing this. Even though Lacus had offered to come for moral support, Cagalli had firmly turned down the idea, deciding that would just make it worse. Suddenly, she found herself regretting that decision greatly.

"Hello, can I help you?" A modest-looking secretary asked the moment Cagalli has fully stepped into the entrance.

"Uh..yes. I'm... Cagalli Yula Athha?" She started slowly. This felt weird. REALLY weird.

Especially when the secretary started beaming, and nodded her head furiously. "Of course! Mr. Zala's special new client! Please go right in! Just up the stairs to the second floor, and straight down the hall!"

Saying that Cagalli was mildly frightened by the woman's enthusiasm would be an understatement. Eyes wide, and smile much forced, Cagalli nodded and rushed up the stairs as quickly as possible, desperately trying to hide her face, as if afraid to be recognized by any living creature. Finally reaching the second floor, she tried to steady her nerves and even peered into some of the other offices, where other people seemed to be talking to, presumably, the agents who were supposed to help them...

Finally reaching the door, she placed her hand on the doorknob. Suddenly she stopped herself.

This was silly. Wasn't it?

It was all very silly of her... to go this far.

There was no reason for her to do this, logically speaking.

Who care what those stupid relatives thought? She was still perfectly young!

…But Lacus had already made the appointment. And… okay maybe she hadn't been on a date for a good…number… of years.

Taking a deep breath she opened the door.

* * *

"You're either a VERY slow walker, or much too nervous."

Cagalli blinked. Huh?

Seated in front of her was a midnight-blue haired, man, with a slight grin on his face, lounging in his chair, looking much too relaxed. The office was much bigger than the other ones... so then this had to be...

"Athrun... Zala?" She tested the name cautiously.

"Absolutely. I saw you outside on the sidewalk, and recognized you from Lacus' description. For a second there, I thought you might have gotten lost..." He chuckled. Cagalli frowned, unconsciously slamming the door shut in her annoyance.

"Well excuse me, if your office is on the SECOND floor, and your receptionist seems to be too cheerful for anyone's good!" She glared sharply.

"You sure you're not just nervous?" Athrun replied smoothly. A blonde eyebrow visibly twitched. His grin spread further. What a character... "Please have a seat. We'll get your profile set up today."

Cagalli blinked. "Profile?..." She repeated uncertainly, slowly easing herself into the chair in front of the desk.

Athrun nodded, already beginning to furiously type away. "I just need some basic information about you, and we'll fill out a profile. Then according to your interests, we search for people with similar interests in the system. If we think it'll be a good match, we show your profiles to each other. If both of you are okay with it, then we set you guys up on a nice date somewhere."

Sliding a few pages towards her, he handed her a pen. "Just start with filling those out. The profile can be updated at anytime, so if you started liking tennis, but then eventually liked badminton more, we can change that."

"Does the system only have this company's clients?" Cagalli asked curiously. Athrun turned to her and nodded. "Well that, isn't that a pretty limited amount of people?"

He laughed a bit at this. "Well over half of the city's single people are in this system... Trust me, it's pretty extensive. And if we fail to find anyone for you at all, then you're free to try to do your own searching too." Suddenly, he turned to her. "Do you have a photo?"

"A... photo?"

"Yes, a photo. Of yourself. To upload into the system." He explained, gesturing towards the screen. "The rule is that if you want to see other people's pictures, you have to provide your own. It's only fair."

Cagalli frowned... She didn't want to say that she was superficial, and that looks mattered a lot. If a person was really terrific, then appearance didn't matter! But she was still curious... Just because they didn't matter, doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

Besides, if she didn't put one up, people might think she was too self-conscious about her own looks. Which she wasn't. At all.

At least, not so that anyone knew it.

"I'll bring a picture next time." She finally gave in. Athrun looked up.

"You don't have a picture with you?"

"Nope."

"Okay then, we'll just go take one." He grinned, standing up and heading out the door. Cagalli sat there for a moment, even after he had dashed out of the room. What... on earth?

Finally getting up and poking around the hall, she found him inside a room, where he seemed to be poking around... a camera?

"Um, what are you doing?" She raised an eyebrow. This guy... was really something.

"Getting ready to take your picture." He looked up from behind the camera for a second, to answer her question. Then quickly darting behind it again, and lifting it off the tripod, all she heard was:

"Smile."

"Huh?" One click and she was blinded by a flash of light. "Hey you! I wasn't ready! You can't just-!"

**_Flash_**.

"Hey, stop that! I'm getting blind-!"

**_Flash_**.

"Are you even listening to me! I-"

**_Flash_**.

Athrun looked up. "I'm only taking one more picture, so you better smile for this one." he teased.

"Wha- You can't just-"

**_Flash_**.

Cagalli groped for a chair blindly with her hands. Eyes squinting, she was wondering how to go about suing this guy for blinding her with successive camera flashes, when she heard a tsk.

"What? Not content with temporary loss of sight! Want to go for permanent!" She spat angrily.

"No… I caught you blinking on the last one. Okay, one more. Now smile for this, okay?"

As he was speaking, she could hear his voice drawing closer to her. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Good thing she was sitting, otherwise she was have fallen back in surprise to see a camera that close to her face.

"You're... insane." She gaped incredulously. Gently, he lowered the camera and broke into a calm and sympathetic smile.

"Sorry, I'm rushing things, I know. I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, but I just wanted to get as much done as possible today. That way, we can get started sooner." He apologized. "Now, smile please."

Cagalli blinked, and slowly... gradually... broke into a slight smile, that spread into her amber eyes, and eventually revealed a vibrant smile.

**_Flash_**.

"There." Athrun grinning, heading over to the computer to upload the photo. "That wasn't so bad was it?"

Cagalli sighed and nodded. "No, I guess not. Just... for future reference. No popping out like that, or rushing. I'd rather take things slowly, to make sure everything's okay before moving on. Maybe I'm just too cautious, but better safe than sorry."

The young man turned to her and grinned. "You do realize that what you just said is definitely going into your profile?"

A mixture of emotions, which ranged from sheer embarrassment to homicidal urges flooded her, trapping all words both protests and threats in her throat. Stuttering, while turning red from the pent up frustration, she heard another click.

**_Flash_**.

"This might go in the profile too." Athrun smiled to himself, quickly thrusting his hand up in the air and keeping the camera out of reach, of the woman who had just sprang to her feet and was frantically trying to retrieve that blasted contraption, that currently held several, doubtlessly embarrassing pictures of her.

"I'm going to kill you if you show that photo to ANYONE-"

"Ms. Athha?"

"What?" She snapped angrily, looking incredibly murderous. Athrun gulped. Really he had just said that to get her to stop. Now that he had her attention, he had no idea what to do with it. But there was one thing that was bothering him...

"You're stepping on my foot."

Cagalli looked down, then back at him, fully realizing how close they were. She quickly sprung away, as if he'd been on fire or something, then turned to grab her bag.

Awkward silence prevailed.

"Are... we done yet?" She broke the thick atmosphere.

"I guess so." He shrugged, shifting his weight from side to side. The next thing he knew, she was out the door and running. Slowly making his way back to the office, camera in hand, he made a mental note to revise the schedule he'd made up.

This girl was going to take a LOT longer than he had planned.

And yet somehow... he was looking forward to every minute of it.

* * *

**This was... probably the most spontaneous idea for a fic that I've ever had, and I was truly, a bit hesitant about actually writing this out. But, I'll give a shot, and if I end up at a dead end, no harm done.**

**What do you guys think?**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Periodic-Prose**


	2. Profile Additions

**Wow so again, it's been ages since my last update. I have a brief vacation, and then I have exams, so my life's going to get hectic soon. I'm hoping to make another update to my other story within a week, but for now I present Chapter two of Matchmeddling:**

**Profile Additions**

* * *

Athrun sat in front of his desk, drumming his fingers on the mouse pad while looking over the recently compiled profile.

Name: Cagalli Yula Athha

Age: 24 (which she had been very reluctant to put)

Interests: Movies, food, trying new things. Active sports and outdoor activities.

Words to describe self: Cheerful, active, friendly...

He frowned a bit. Though it was good, it didn't seem to fully reflect the qualities that he was beginning to see in her. He tacked on a quick "modest" to her description, and hoped it would suffice. In any case, it was no big deal. He'd personally be handling her case anyways, so even if the profile wasn't enough, he could make up for it.

Now all that was left was the photo. Opening the manila folder to his left, she flipped through the collection of photos he now had. Though many of them were highly amusing, only one seemed like it was a "profile" type of picture. The one that she had posed for.

He smiled, finally able to complete the profile. Now the fun could start.

* * *

"So he was?..." Lacus prompted her friend to answer. In truth, sending Cagalli to Athrun wasn't just to have fun in seeing Cagalli date. It was also to see how Athrun worked. What was it about him, or the way his business worked that made him so successful?

"Helpful, I guess." Cagalli shrugged. Even if Lacus had been probing her for the past half hour, she wasn't really sure what to say. The process seemed efficient. Easy. She didn't really do much, except answer a few questions. Now, later today she'd be going in to look at a list of people. It was like buying a house or something... Just not going to cost her a heap of money.

Kira returned to the conversation, sitting down on the sofa and eating an apple. "Cagalli.. Are you sure you want to do this? It seems kind of... weird."

"How so?" She asked, raising a curious eyebrow. Ever since Kira had found out, he'd been in severe disbelief and denial, that Cagalli was capable of dating, or even making an effort to.

"I don't know. I mean, I think that there's more to it than you're letting on. You say it's because Aunt Samantha kept telling you about how you should be having children soon... while granted, was pretty annoying... but I mean, I don't think that's enough reason to be going through all this." He shrugged. Lacus elbowed him lightly for mentioning "Aunt Samantha", noting the scowl that appear on Cagalli's face.

"Look, I have more reasons like that." Cagalli defended herself. She already felt pretty silly doing this... Having her brother rub it in wasn't helping.

"Like what? And none of the reason better start with terms or relation. Uncle Jack, Aunt Clara, Cousin Pat, etc... don't count as additional reasons."

Another sharp glare from Cagalli, and elbow nudge from Lacus.

"I have my reasons." Cagalli insisted, standing up and grabbing her bag off the coffee table. "Thanks for lunch Lacus. I'll see you guys later."

* * *

Cagalli proceeded down the street in a huff, for no reason she was particularly aware of. However, she was pretty sure it had something to do with the lack of faith her dear brother seemed to possess in her. What made him think that he was so special, just because he already had a steady relationship? Even more so, so what if she was doing this solely for revenge?...

Sort of...

Kind of...

Okay so maybe she had another reason. Maybe not. What difference did it make? She was doing this, mainly to spite her relatives.

More or less...

Quickly entering the now-familiar building, she brushed past the front desk as quickly as possible, to avoid confrontation with the unfathomably friendly receptionist, she headed straight for the stairs. People were supposed to hate other people when they work as secretaries, or in customer service, because of all the stupid people that they have to put up with. How on earth was that woman still so cheerful?

Was that what guys go for? Undying cheerfulness?

"Well I wouldn't say that's something to go for, but it's probably a plus." A voice interrupted her thoughts, causing her stop abruptly and turn around.

"I- Wha- How do you-" The words coming out of Cagalli's mouth stumbled almost as much as her step, as she tried to stagger in the general direction of the apparent psychic's office.

"You were talking out loud." Athrun shrugged, gently taking hold of her arm and leading her into his office. "Come, come. We have a lot to do today."

Numbly, Cagalli nodded in agreement, wondering if she was as obviously embarrassed as she felt. It was that unbearable burning sensation that burned your ears and cheeks, and you could only pray that blood wasn't rushing there, and that you couldn't see it.

Meanwhile, Athrun was trying very hard to suppress a grin, on account on how her face resembled a stop sign, and how she was trying to stop it. yet the effect of holding her breath and trying to burying her face in her shirt only made it all the more obvious. Sitting at his desk, he pulled open a drawer and handed her a manila folder, which she promptly tried to use to cover her face.

"So..." Athrun started, trying to see around the documents Cagalli was holding right in front of her face. "Umm I put them in order of who I thought you'd be interested in..."

The paper moved, so he could only assume she nodded. Taking it as a sign of confirmation, he continued.

"The first one's personality is pretty matching, but the age is a little off I think..."

The papers nodded.

"I don't know how important age.. uh... Ms. Athha?... I'm sure you're done blushing by now, and even if you aren't I'd real rather be able to see your face."

Cagalli felt mortified. Truth be told, she wasn't just about done blushing until he had said that. Her eyes widened and she let out some sort of strange startled noise, before ducking her head down so quickly that Athrun jumped a bit. Her forehead made abrupt contact with his desk, before she raised it again and took at deep breath.

Athrun gripped the armrests on his chair tightly. "Are you... okay?"

"Perfectly fine!" She nodded happily.

The man facing her regarded her for a moment, evidently trying to suppress laughter, before letting out an uncontainable chuckle and shaking his head slowly. "Okay then, moving along now... yes or no."

Cagalli looked down at the profile again... This guy looked interesting enough, but he was almost 7 years older than her. And she just wasn't at that age where an age difference of that much was okay. She let out a reluctant sigh and handed the paper back to him. "I... don't think so."

"So then age IS a problem?" He raised an eyebrow.

She bit her lip and nodded. "I don't want to sound superficial, but 7 years is just a tad too much for me."

He nodded understandingly. "That's fine. It's better to tell the truth than end up sifting through a lot of choices that could have been eliminated in the first place. Thanks for being honest." He paused tentatively, watchign her reaction of obvious discomfort and sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm the same."

"You don't like people who are 7 years older either?"

"Uh... I don't like large age gaps, so I suppose so, yes." Athrun shrugged. She seemed to relax a bit at this knowledge. "All right then, um just skip the next few profiles then and we can continue..."

"Huh? Why are we skipping those?" Cagalli asked, flipping through them.

"Oh, well they're all men who are quite a bit older..." Athrun coughed, slightly embarrassed for some reason he wasn't really sure of.

"But I thought you put these in order of who you thought I'd be interested in." She frowned, tossing a few to the side.

"I did... the matching ones just happened to be older. Maybe you just prefer older... err... more mature men."

Cagalli raised an eyebrow. "Really? How strange. I don't think I would have thought of that... What about this guy?"

Athrun leaned over the desk to take a look. "Which one?"

"This one. What do you think?" She passed him the paper. He looked it over.

Sportive. Intelligent. Open to new things. Relatively attractive. Only 2 years older than her. Liked to pace relationships slowly.

"Looks good." Athrun responded. "Want me to arrange a meeting?" He asked, turning towards his computer.

"Uh... Sure. I guess?" She responded in a nervous tone. He glanced at her.

"Something wrong?"

"No! Not at all!" She shook her head furiously. His eyebrows furrowed a bit, before turning back to the screen.

"Oh, will you look at that? His agent's already sent a request for a meeting. Guess he was interested too..." Athrun noted aloud, unconsciously with a trace of disapproval. "So then, everything's set. He's available coming Wednesday night. Is that okay with you?"

Another silent nod.

"Well then, hope you enjoy yourself." The proud agent smiled, pleased that he had been able to work so fast. Cagalli said thank you, and then stood up to go.

Suddenly, she paused at the door. "Hey, this means that I'm going to go on... a date with this guy, right?"

Athrun blinked, then nodded, hand on the door, about to open it for her.

"Uh, what's his name?"

"Jordan."

"And uh... shoot. Do I have to do anything?"

"... Show up?" Athrun seemed confused. This girl seemed completely confused about what on earth she was supposed to do.

Meanwhile, Cagalli really was completely confused about what on earth she was supposed to do. Okay so it had been a while since she'd gone on a date. Agh, what the hell was she doing asking this guy? She could ask Lacus.

Who... was dating her brother. Thus she would inevitably TELL said brother, who would probably blab to the rest of the extended family, who would embarrass whatever pride she had left in her, out of her.

She snapped back to reality at the wave of a hand. Athrun's face appeared, concerned, in front of her. "Everything okay? You zoned out."

"Uh... This might seem like a strange question, but what should I wear?"

Okay now he was REALLY confused. Did he look like someone who was into fashion? He shrugged.

"Wear... Well I supposed most people would tell you to make an effort to look really nice and go all out for a great first impression. But I'm into that whole wear-what-you-want thing. Forget first impressions, just let the first impression of yourself, be yourself. No point in making them think you're one person, then having them realize otherwise later on."

Cagalli nodded along. "Okay, makes sense. Uh... thanks?"

He nodded encouragingly. "You'll be fine. Good luck."

* * *

Lacus and Kira sat patiently on Cagalli couch, waiting for her to return. Though they felt like giddy teenagers, or heaven forbid, over eager parents waiting for their daughter to return...

Finally they heard the sound of footsteps approach. Quickly ducking so that they wouldn't be visible, they waited until they heard the door open, before running forward.

Kira first grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did he try anything weird? He didn't try anything weird did he?"

Cagalli blinked. Suddenly, a slight blush rose to her cheeks and she looked away. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Night guys."

Slowly she slipped out of her brother's grip, and rushed off to her bedroom. Lacus and Kira exchanged confused looks, before Kira's eyes widened.

"HE DID TRY SOMETHING!"

Lacus sighed. "No, I don't think so. I think she might just be..."

* * *

"Overreacting." Athrun shook his head slowly. "Calm down a moment, and tell me what happened."

Cagalli blushed furiously. "He... Well he... the profile said that he liked to PACE relationships!"

"And yet he?..."

A bright red face turned away. "That's private!"

"You're definitely hiding something here. And I can't help you unless you tell me what happened!" Athrun sighed patiently, gesturing for her to sit down.

Cagalli continued pacing stubbornly. Finally Athrun stood up to her and forced her into the seat. Her eyes widened and she glared at him sharply.

"He..."

"He...?"

"He tried to hug me!"

Athrun blinked. Cagalli's face held an expression of utter incredulity, as if the words she had just uttered were sure to shock whoever caught the faintest trace of it. Athrun continued to stare, and blink.

"So?..."

"So he tried to hug me! That's not good!" She protested vehemently.

"Did he try to hug you a lot or something?" Athrun was completely bewildered. So the man tried to hug her... There wasn't anything wrong with that… Was there?

Cagalli frowned. Hug her a lot? "No... If he had tried that I'm pretty sure that he'd be in dire need of a dentist and a very good chiropractor..."

He smiled, then began to chuckle. She studied him curiously. He tried looking around the room, at something really boring to quell the laughter inside him, all to no avail. His sounds of amusement grew increasingly louder, until it overwhelmingly engulfed the entire room. Cagalli sat in confusion, uncertain about what to do. Did this guy just lose it in the period of five minutes? Should she... leave the room?

Meanwhile, Athrun was still trying to catch his breath, already slumped to the floor and still convulsing with laughter. Oh lord...

Naturally everyone person has an end to their patience. Cagalli just happened to reach it a bit earlier than others. Growing impatient, she snatched up a file folder and whacked his left shoulder with it until he stopped. Finally, he looked up at her, his hand on his shoulder, rubbing it slightly.

"He hugged you?" Athrun asked, still grinning like crazy.

"Well no, he tried to. I mean, I guess we did, but very awkwardly so." Cagalli explained.

"Mm I see... So you've either never gone out on a date before, or just dated a lot of guys from the 18th century... do you really think that hugging's not allowed?"

Silence...

"Isn't it?"

"It's... a HUG."

"So?"

"It's just a friendly gesture... What would make you think that it's-"

"Well I don't know! I just... I feel uncomfortable doing that! It's like.. it's a sign of affection and I don't know if I really feel that way yet after just one date, and so I'd feel like I'm maybe leading him on or something if I did that and I wasn't really... I'm just babbling now huh?"

Athrun was leaning against his desk and smiling at her sympathetically. "Kind of. I think I see where you're going... You don't want to lead on people. But a hug can mean anything... I mean, what do you think of him?"

"Jordan?... He's a pretty cool guy."

"So then what's wrong with hugging him?"

"... Is this a rhetorical question or-" She started, not really sure if that was a serious question.

"I'm REALLY asking you this." He insisted.

"I... I don't know! It just didn't seem right! Did you hear my babbling just a minute ago?" She responded in a panicked tone. She fell to the floor and stared at the ceiling in resignation. "I really have no idea."

Athrun walked up to her and sat down beside her on the soft carpet, cross-legged. "No idea about what?" He inquired calmly.

"No idea about a lot of things." She sighed. "I have no clue what I'm doing here, or what I'm looking for, or if I'm doing it right. I have no idea where my life is going, or where I see myself 10 years from now. you know, all those questions that show up on chain mail questioners or psychiatric diagnostic questions."

She continued to rant out whatever doubts she had in her mind, and Athrun simply sat there, nodded every now and then. When she had finally talked herself out, he looked away for a bit as a pensive look came across his face.

"I think that... you're not the only one like that. I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of people that feel the same way. Not knowing what you're doing makes you feel disorganized, like you're getting absolutely nowhere. But as long as you make the best of the situation you're in, it can never get too bad, and eventually everyone finds a path and gets to a place they want to be."

Cagalli turned her head in his direction and got up a bit so that she was still lying on the carpet, but propped up against her elbows, facing forward. "You want to know something?" She asked. He shrugged.

"Only if you want to tell."

"Well, I don't know if it'll make much sense. I'm kind of just thinking as I'm going along... But maybe Kira's right."

"Kira?" Athrun raised his eyebrows. Lacus' boyfriend?

Cagalli seemed to note the look on his face. "My brother."

"Oh, I see. I went to grade school with him, but I haven't talked to him in ages. Sorry, we're digressing. What did you want to say?" He said politely.

She smiled. "He said that I shouldn't be doing this just for relatives. And I shouldn't be. But relatives aside, maybe there is some other reason I'm doing this. It's kind of weird, but sometimes I feel like wherever I look, everyone's found their matching soul. i always thought I was different, or original, or whatever. And so maybe finding mine was just going to be harder. But somewhere along the line, I think I got tired of waiting around, as I tend to do." She laughed. "Should I just be more patient, or is it okay for me to be like this?"

"It's okay for you to be however you want to be." Athrun responded plainly, standing up and extending his hand to help her up. Cagalli regarded it for a moment, before taking it and standing up too.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, do whatever you want. That way, what you do, reflects who you are, which means that the person you end up finding will be the right person. Right?" Athrun explained, as if it were the more obvious thing on earth. His blond client blinked at him.

"You're quite the talker. I think I see what your business is so successful."

Her azure-hair agent grinned. "Maybe. In any case, I feel more like a psychiatrist then matchmaking agent now."

Cagalli laughed genuinely for the first time in a long time. "Are you going to charge me extra for this?"

Athrun shrugged sarcastically. "First time's on me."

* * *

Cagalli whipped out her cell phone and called Kira on the way home. Waiting for the familiar voice to say hello, she smiled.

So today she had not only arranged another meeting, but felt a lot more comfortable with way she was going about this. And even if it wasn't really for the relatives anymore, who cares?

She was going to do this her way.

* * *

Athrun leaned back into his chair, finalizing the meeting between Cagalli and the next person she had picked. She was... an interesting person all right. She had moments of confidence, and moments of doubt. But she always seemed to get right back on track.

Opening up her profile on the computer again, he began to revise it with his new found discoveries about this interesting woman.

Pausing for a moment, he seemed confused. For the first time, in a long time, he was at a loss of words. He just didn't know what words could accurately portray who she was.

Chuckling a bit, he added a single word to the profile, then quickly erased it and reached over for a thesaurus.

The word was: Indescribable.

* * *

**Well then, I hope nothing seems like it's moving too quickly. I'm trying to show a nice gradual development of feelings. If anyone feels like these guys are going too quickly, please say so!**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter:**

**Garowyn, -boos-, the nilaga lover, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, Sinnara, wobblytooth, cottongreentea, Swt. Harmony, Living Arrow, Vigorian-Asakura, ANONYMOUS, Cardia, Belle, moi, animemistress419, gseedlover, stuntsheep, MiyuCagalli, Kintora, ovp, asucags, 3fi-pina3, asga, The Angels' Princess, Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan, Rayar, aNgEl-Of-LoVe-AnD-hAtE, JC-Athie, BabuBear, Sunflower Seeds, MissRule, Panda, The Jackle, cloudy mind, Kitty-Kat90013820, xfangirl obsessionx, Star-Moon-Angel, Maryam Khanoom, Princess Ashes.**

**All your comments and encouragement was much appreciated. **


	3. Double Discoveries

**So it's been a while since I updated... sorry! Truthfully, I had this done for about a week but I wanted to wait until I finished another chapter, so that I could do a double post. But the next one's taking me quite a while, so I thought I'd just post this up now. The next chapter of my other story, To Pluck an Honest Rose, will as a result, be updated probably in less than a week. As for now...**

**Onwards!**

**

* * *

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Athrun sat, composed at his computer and rapidly typing away at his keyboard. It had been a while since Cagalli had started meeting men and dating them, each time coming back with the general "He's okay, but -" reaction. And so she was offered a choice: Keep going and see if the "but" wasn't such a big deal to her, or just drop it and find someone else.

No one had really lasted more that 3 dates, and by that point the agreement to stop was mutual. In general, she didn't really like to keep going, unless the problem was simply something very minor. Athrun warned, that hunting for perfection was going to make the search much more difficult. Cagalli replied that she knew, but for the meantime, it didn't seem like any of these guys were right for her anyways. Her trusty agent would simply tell her, that if she kept rejecting people then it would be harder. Less offers might come for her... nonetheless, she seemed fine with this to. Her response was something along the lines of,

"If the guy doesn't want to date me because I'm selective, then I don't want to date him either!"

Quite on the contrary to what Athrun thought would happen, the requests for meetings were pouring in, and her waiting pool was already quite sizable. Her trusty and slightly protective agent, who would never admit it that he was wrong, of course hid this from her. He had even created an automatic filter according to age, simply due to the incredible amount of men who were older than what Cagalli had requested, but were trying to give it a shot anyways.

In some ways, it was better that he kept this secret from Cagalli, otherwise he had no idea how she'd react to so many elder men popping up and asking for a date. In the meantime, she simply spent a lot of time in Athrun's office, looking through profiles with him. On occasion, they'd even gone out for a coffee or lunch together, as a break from combing through profiles. Sometimes she was only in there for half an hour before she found someone; more often then not, it was a few hours.

Not that Athrun complained of course. He was more than happy to accommodate the eager blond and her energetic aura. Actually the two of them worked well together, and Athrun thought that in general, everything was going smoothly. He was always willing to do whatever he could to help her, and though she rarely asked for help, preferring to be as independent as possible, she was grateful for his generosity. After all, he had never refused a favor, or a request form her... Until:

"This guy sounds nice..." Cagalli mumbled softly, yet aloud.

"Who?" Unsure of whether he was supposed to hear that or not, he looked up anyways.

"There's this weird mark beside his name..." She trailed off.

"That just means there's some special condition for him. It usually ranges anywhere from refusing to go for Italian food, to having to bring his cat." Athrun smirked at Cagalli's obviously stunned reaction. "I'll look it up for you."

Cagalli sat there, unsure of whether or not she wanted to hear this...

"Oh... well that's interesting."

"What is it?"

"He only double dates."

"... What?" She blinked apparently caught between confusion, surprise, and shock, all of which were quite evident on her face.

"He only double dates.. Or he prefers them at least. It's not all that uncommon... Some people just feel uncomfortable being one on one with a stranger, and so they'd rather bring a friend. Just bringing a random friend is never agreed to, and much too weird. So they request a double date instead. This person is bringing a heterosexual female, so then I suppose you'd have to find a guy to bring."

Cagalli paused, as if digesting his words for a moment. " I see..." She started. This might be a problem.

This guy's profile looked great, really interesting, and she could very much understand feeling nervous or a bit uneasy about it. After all, if Lacus hadn't forced her, and Athrun wasn't her "agent" then she probably wouldn't be doing this either. But the issue was finding someone. Kira was with Lacus, so she couldn't force him to do that... And most other guy friends already had their "Happily ever afters" or were with someone. Which effectively left...

Athrun was starting to get that weird feeling, that you experience when you feel like someone is looking at you. Especially when they're looking at you, and waiting for something, or watching you expectingly. She didn't expect him to help with this one did she? Surely not! Such an idea was ridiculous! He'd always been helpful, but even he had his limits!

A bit apprehensive about looking up, he cleared his throat and tried to continue searching on the computer without making eye contact with Cagalli... A natural defensive maneuver.

"Athruuun..." She started.

Athrun began typing faster, and turned his head away from her a bit, for added emphasis. "Uh.. Yes?"

"You're not dating anyone, right?" Again... in a slow and cautious voice, clearly meant to have him get the point so that she wouldn't have to say it directly.

"No, ah.. Currently I am not." He answered, careful only to respond to the direct question, without revealing any extraneous information. Despite her clear attempts to have him ellude what she wanted, he wasn't about to do anything.

"Well... I'd like to meet this guy, but I don't have anyone to set up for the double date..."

"That's too bad then." He replied with his head, still down. "I suppose I'll just reject his offer then and-"

"Athrun! I thought you were supposed to be helpful!"

"Hey! Double dating's NOT in my job description!"

Cagalli glared angrily. "You're supposed to be HELPFUL!

"Cagalli, stop being unreasonable!" He argued "Surely you can find someone-"

"There's no one else!"

"Well then reject his offer, because I refuse to get involved in this sort of thing!" Athrun protested firmly.

* * *

Two days later at 6pm...

"How did I get myself involved in this sort of thing?" Athrun sighed, finding himself standing in front of a full length mirror and dressed in a business casual manner, which wasn't really much of a departure from what he usually wore.

"Think about it this way Athrun, maybe this way you can help Cagalli find her true love. And besides, you hardly go out enough anyways... It'll be nice." Lacus responded, trying to relieve his evident pain. Cagalli had more or less ordered him to meet her at Lacus' house, so they could head over to the restaurant together.

"Maybe this guy's friend is a nice girl... What's her name?" Kira leaned casually against a dresser, watching Cagalli and Athrun get ready.

"Annabelle, I think? Apparently she's the guy's best friend, but they used to date." Cagali answered. She side-glanced at Athrun and frowned. "Stop fussing about. It's supposed to be casual, and besides you look great."

The azure haired man blinked and gave her a puzzled look. "I've barely even done anything. I was just checking if I had my wallet."

"Oh... Well then you just regularly look that way." She responded without thinking.

"I regularly look great?" Now he was really confused.

Cagalli was turning redder by the second. Declining to answer, she grabbed her bag and stormed out the front door while shouldering it. "We'd better hurry! We're supposed to meet them at the restaurant in half an hour, and we're walking, remember?"

Bewildered, Athrun reached for his jacket, noting how the temperature was supposed to dip quite a bit that night. He thought of grabbing Cagalli a coat, but she was already far down the street and well out of earshot. Nodding briefly at Lacus and Kira, he too, was soon chasing after Cagalli.

Kira nodded back, and Lacus waved, while closing the door to her house, before turning to Kira. "Change of plans?"

"Plans?"

"I think that Cagalli might have started having feelings for someone who's not in Athrun's database..."

* * *

After a good minute or two of sprinting, Athrun had caught up to Cagalli, whose face no longer seemed to bear the lovely shade of red it previously had. Falling into stride with her, he found himself observing her expression and general demeanor.

She was definitely dressed casually, and didn't seem to outwardly show much nervousness. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, and her arms swung loosely at her sides, not fiddling with her necklace, or pockets as she often did when anxious. Yet from how frequently she kept blinking, he knew that she must have something on her mind. If he were to venture a guess...

"You've never been on a double date before?" He raised an eyebrow. As if she'd forgotten he was there, Cagalli looked up, startled, and gave him a quick nod.

"Well... Never a double date, much less a blind double date... That seems to make it all the worse." She admitted, letting out a brief ironic laugh.

"Are you nervous that I'm here?" He asked. She looked up at him and studied him fro a moment, before shaking her head.

"No, that's not it. That fact that it's you probably makes it a little better... but I mean. I feel like I'm going to have an audience now or something." she sighed. Athrun smiled sympathetically.

"It's not really different than... Well It's not going to be just like a regular date so I can't say forget that we're here. Why don't you just try not thinking about this as a date, and consider it more of a... hanging out with people. Don't worry about whether or not you're paying enough attention to the guy, because no one expects that much from a first date anyways. Just thinking of it as a get together will help you relax a bit, and then it all kind of just falls into place." He shrugged.

Cagalli smiled, and raised a mischievous eyebrow. "You seem pretty experienced with this kind of stuff. Have you done this before?"

Athrun's eyes widened. "No! Of course not! I told you I don't get involved in this sort of thing... well I haven't before. I'm just saying what I think... to help calm you down."

Cagalli let out a contented sigh. "Well, thank you. I appreciate it."

* * *

Athrun and Cagalli arrived at the restaurant slightly later than expected, which Athrun apologized profusely for. Technically they were still early, but it appeared that their dates still were there before them. Annabelle was a polite girl of average height. Apparently she had a love for flowers and dogs, and was a generally pleasant person to be around. Someone who you could earnestly say you were glad to meet.

Jordan was around the same height as Athrun, maybe a tad shorter, also good natured, but not as polite as Annabelle. In fact, he seemed downright casual, which suited Cagalli just fine because if he ended up being too polite she would feel awkward at the very least... It was already somewhat surprising that she could deal with Athrun's formality without smacking him in the head a few times... granted she did smack him on the arm occasionally, but not half as much as one might expect.

True to his profile, Jordan did share Cagalli's taste for spicy foods. Athrun, though a fan of unique flavors, didn't mind spicy foods, but certainly wasn't on a conquest to burn his tongue off. As for Annabelle, she settled with a much tamer plate for dinner.

"So, you guys are pretty close right?" Athrun asked, trying to open up the conversation to everyone, instead of the two person to person conversations that had been taking place thus far.

"Yes, we dated seriously for a while, but sort of ended up... perhaps not drifting, but finding that we were seeing each other in a different way. And now we're just very close friends." Annabelle explained.

"That's nice" Cagalli commented. "Its rare to see relationships end so smoothly these days..."

"Well it wasn't so easy at first to tell the truth... Actually it was kind of hard for each other at first, but it's been almost a year since we broke up, so I suppose you can't see much more than friendship anymore." Jordan explained, peppering a piece of broccoli furiously. Catching Cagalli's neutral expression while watching him do that, he looked up and grinned a bit. "Sorry if I seem like a nut..." he started

Cagalli blinked quickly, then shook her head and laughed. "It's not that, really! I was just wondering when you would be done with the pepper, so I could use it."

Athrun stole a brief glance at the two of them, out of the corner of his eye. Neither he, nor Annabelle were the type to talk with food in their mouths, so conversation was going rather slowly.

Cagalli seemed to be getting along very well with this guy. They had similar personalities, interests, and attitudes. Athrun smiled, thinking that if this really was the guy for her, then going on this double date thing might have been worth it after all.

Ha... If this guy were the one. But wait... he didn't know anything about this guy. What if Jordan seemed all right, but inside had some sort of weird twist to him? Otherwise, why would he break up with Annabelle, who was in his opinion, a perfectly reaonable girl? Imcompatible personalities?...

No, there was nothing wrong with Jordan. He was... well he probably had his flaws, but they were nothing so bad as to make him seem like a bad person.

And that bugged him... Just a little bit. Athrun thought about it seriously. His job was to find Cagalli someone, right? And even though Jordan was a nice guy, what if he wasn't the One person for cagalli, that Athrun intended to find for her. After all, she was special. Much more interesting, and amusing and pleasant to be with than his other clients... There really could only be a handful of people that Athrun would consider suitable for Cagalli.

A nudge to his ribs interrupted his thoughts. Looking to his right, he noticed Cagalli was pointing to Annabelle, while still carry on a conversation with Jordan. Looking ahead, he realized that his "date" had already finished her meal, and was sitting politely in front of him, napkin folded on the table, and hands in her lap. She looked... bored.

"Ahh... sorry, I'm not the most entertaining companion." Athrun immediately said, feeling genuinely embarrassed. Even if he had simply been dragged into this by Cagalli, he would still feel horrible if Annabelle became bored out of her mind. She had come here seriously hoping that he would be a nice guy. Perhaps she was actually searching for someone...

Wait... was he? Despite his career, Athrun hadn't really put serious thought or effort into dating much himself... In any case, this was a date, and regardless of why he was here, he felt obligated to not have Annabelle feel like she was wasting her time.

Annabelle looked up, and smiled at his previous comment to her. 'It's fine, I was just thinking in my head. for a moment."

"Oh, about what" Athurn asked, somewhat curious.

"Ah, about random things I suppose. I'm not much of a conversationist either, until I get to know a person better."

"That's fine. More people are like that than you might think."

* * *

Cagalli continued her lively conversation with Jordan. He was an interesting guy, definately better than other guys she had dated as far as she could tell. He was also remarkably easy to talk to. So far, this date was going smoothly. And true to Athruns word, she didn't feel like she had an audience at all. He wasn't watching her, or sitting there, observing her every word and move. He was holding his own conversation with Annabelle.

After all, this was a date for him too, right? Was this how he is on dates?

Suddenly Cagalli felt a pang of curiosity go through her, as she snuck a glance at him. Both he and Annabelle looked incredibly proper, both sitting straight, and conversing about some book apparently. A picture perfect couple. She seemed very polite, somewhat similar to Athrun. Athrun was carrying the conversation well.

Suddenly, her mind began to wander a bit. Athrun was a nice guy, perfectly decent and... admittedly a little good looking. Her conscience tried to get her to confess, that he was a bit more than that, but for the time being it wasn't important.

The issue was with all these nice qualities, why didn't he have a girlfriend? Why didn't he date? It's not like he couldn't get one, right?

Her thoughts snapped out of focus when the waiter broguht their check. Dinner seemed to have just flown by... Jordan stood up and smiled, asked her if she was up for another date sometime, not necessarily a double. Cagali smiled, responding that she was definately up for it. Meanwhile, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Athrun shaking hands politely with Annabelle. She mentally rolled her eyes. Always such the gentleman...

* * *

Athrun and Caglli now proceeded to walk back in the direction of their houses. They were simply chatting lightly, following the conversation in whatever direction it seemed to be going in. Casually strolling beside each other, they failed to notice how quickly time had passed.

It wasn't quite like their respective conversations in the restaurant, where questions were centered on getting to know the other person more, but of comfortable banter between two people, who seemed to know each other much better than they realized.

Athrun silently decided to walk Cagalli home, before dropping by Lacus' house to pick up his car, and Cagalli didn't seem to mind or complain. Feeling the night breeze come by, he glanced down at her.

"You're shivering" He commented, glancing at her shoulders.

"No I'm not." She answered quickly

"Yes, you are. Do you need my jacket?"

"No." Another quick answer

A few minutes of silent walking passed, before...

"Lend me your jacket." She turned to him and extended her arm, as if demanding it.

"I thought you said you didn't need it." A lopsided and teasing grin.

"I don't think need it, but I'd feel more comfortable with it." A shrug.

His jacket was then passed to her, and she quickly donned it with a quick thanks, before continuing to walk back. Upon returning to her apartment, she shrugged it off her shoulders and handed it back. Saying a brief sentences of appreciation, for both the jacket and the night, it occured to her that they hadn't even touched the subject of the date at all on the way back.

Pushing the thought behind her, Cagalli told him that she'd stop by his office the day after the next, and after a quck hug, disappeared into the building.

The rest of Athrun's journey home was... calm and more silent than the first part of the day had been. He was somewhat glad, because this gave him some time to reflect.

In some ways it felt like he'd done a whole dinner of thinking, but he still felt like there was a lot more to think about. He wasn't so sure anymore, about what he was doing with Cagalli.

This dinner had raised questions. Currenly, she wasn't his only client but she felt like the most important one... More and more he found himself pushing back other appointments to meet with her, and having her requests take priority. He was also darn sure that if it had been anyone else there was no way he would have gone on a double date with them.

Though he shouldn't play favorites, he really did feel particularily attached to her. Part of him thought it was because she was Lacus' friend or her ebullient personality. A tiny voice inside him whispered that he was in denial.

In any case, at times like these, he couldn't help but remember that she was just a client, and the moment she found someone, she'd stop having to come to his office and he wouldn't see her so much. In fact, he might not see her at all.

And for some reason, the idea of that irked him... a lot.

Returning home, he took his jacket and hung it in the hall closet. Before completely walking away from it, he paused for a moment, still facing away from it...

"You don't think you need it... But you feel more comfortable with it." A melancholy smile crept up onto his face. "Funny how that works."

* * *

**So then! After a night of dating and discovery, what lies ahead for these two. And what of Lacus' hunch? Next Chapter: Systematic Stalling... Because if you can't decide, just push it back!**

**This chapter didn't really have a lot of dialogue, but was a bit heavier in character insight and interaction. It's actually a bit of a relief to have this here, so I can finally start moving in the direction I intended too... Since it's 3 chapters in and I JUST started with that I wanted, my original plan of 6 chapters might be modified... I'll see how I decide to split the chapters.**

**I am definitely rushing to get these chapters finished now, because soon college's going to start and I won't really have time. I do have a handful of people pressuring me to finish these up, so I'll try my best everyone! But you know, I don't want to rush and write badly... Ahh maybe I'm just lazy. **

**Thank you to all my dear reviewers! Sorry to keep you waiting!**

**Kagally, Lems, Eternally Asuka, lil kagome 14, X-19A Infinite Justice, Dreams of Eternity, Tetsuni, Kintora, PINKSISA, animemistress419, XxbuffyxX, The Jackle, Belle , Panda, aNg3l-Of-LoV3-AnD-h4t3, stuntsheep , ovp, Swt. Harmony, gseedlover, DiRTy-LaRrY, Vigorian-Asakura, asucags, thousandbirds, CaptKuchiki, Garowyn, daisukiasu'n'caga, Cari-Akira, ANONYMOUS-gsd, asga, 3fi-pina3, Princess Ashes, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, The Angels' Princess, -boos-, Maryam Khanoom, Kitty-Kat90013820, xfangirl obsessionx, Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan, jackie-88-ac**

**Such lovely comments never fail to brighten my day!**

**Periodic-Prose  
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	4. Exchange of Thoughts

**I meant to update this earlier. But got lazy when classes started. Organic chemistry, why do you mock me?  
**

* * *

"Hey Lacus... Has Athrun been dating recently?" 

Her friend lifted her face from the book she was reading curiously, seemingly surprised by the question, and an innocent smile rose to her face. "And why the sudden question?"

Cagalli blushed, realizing how easily her question could be misinterpreted. "I'm not sure, but it's something I've been wondering about ever since that double date he and I went on..." She trailed off.

That was nearly two weeks ago. She had seen Jordan a few times since then, each time growing more and more fond of him. Consequently, she was seeing less of Athrun, and it felt strange. She wanted to think that they were friends by now, at the very least and that their relationship was something more close than just a client and professional, but with the lack of recent contact, it was hard not to wonder.

"Hmm, well it would depend on what you would define as recently I suppose." Lacus responded thoughtfully, a finger to her chin. "Of the past few years, no serious relationship that I know of."

"Maybe he dated casually and just didn't tell you? A few dates isn't necessarily something big... But he's not the type for a one nighters right?" Cagalli wondered aloud.

"Athrun? Oh certainly not... He's the type that would much rather take a good book than a pretty girl to bed." Her friend responded, shaking her head for emphasis.

"I figured that much, but that doesn't stop pretty girls from throwing themselves at him, does it?"

Lacus smiled at the slightly bitter tone laced in those words. Indeed, anyone who had spend a few days with Athrun would eventually notice the stares he got from young women, and frequency of being approached. "No... No I suppose it doesn't stop them. In fact if you believe in reverse psychology, it might even make him seem more attractive."

"What? That he's not interested?" Cagalli frowned, a bit surprised at her own defensive tone. "In any case, I was just wondering. During the date, he seemed to get along well with the girl. So it got me wondering as to why he wasn't dating himself."

"He's simply been busy I think. He's very dedicated, both to his business, and would be to whomever wins his heart. At this point I think he realizes that he couldn't be the perfect boyfriend to someone that he would want to be, so he just isn't trying." The pink haired lady responded, taking as much as she knew about him into account. "But this girl on the double date. She was nice?"

"Ah, yes... Very pleasant. They talked about books a lot... I think." Cagalli responded, still digesting Lacus' last words. "Why does he want to be perfect? It's not like anyone expects that from someone."

Clear blue eyes twinkled with a smile. "That's his own little theory... He'll probably tell you about it someday. Besides, it's always nice, isn't it? Now did Athrun like this girl? Did it seem like it?"

"Ah... He seemed to enjoy her company, but at the same time was perhaps a bit... withdrawn?" The blond responded, trying to bring back the memory. The image of Athrun laughing in the company of Annabelle seemed to bring a twinge in her chest.

"What's her name again?" Lacus inquired curiously, seemingly growing more suspicious by the second.

"Eh? I thought you knew already. Annabelle."

Lacus seemed to go into shock for a moment, and blinked twice before responding. "Annabelle?..."

"Yeah. Annabelle... Shoulder length, dark, auburn hair. Grey eyes." Cagalli examined her friend's face.

"Oh. Oh I see..." An expression of slight relief. "Annabelle. That's a nice name. Sorry, you probably mentioned it briefly, and I just didn't catch it. If I'd heard it I would have remembered it. It's... similar..."

"What was that look, just now?" Amber eyes narrowed inquisitively.

"What look?" Pure Denial.

"THAT look. The shocked one."

"Oh. That... That was just... Well her name might have been why Athrun felt withdrawn. It's nothing serious. Really." Lacus assured her, unfortunately not very effectively. "It's another one of those things, that Athrun will probably end up telling you about. It's, also one of those things that I feel like only he has a right to tell you about." She smiled apologetically.

Cagalli frowned a bit. She thought she knew him pretty well already...Doubt and the slightest hint of disappointment swelled up in her. Come to think of it most of the time they talked, it was about her life.

So how much did she really know about him?

* * *

Athrun has never felt so ambivalent about success in his entire life. All things considered, it looked like Cagalli and Jordan would work out. At the same time, he wasn't ready to simply call this case closed. 

Firstly, it was all too easy. For many people, it took months before they found someone perfect for them. In the case of Cagalli and Jordan, he could only think that it seemed easy, because both people were the type that were easy to get along with. But this didn't mean that they were perfect for each other. Simply that they happened to get along well.

Secondly, Cagalli was easy to get along with, but in his eyes, fairly complex. She was in no way the simple girl that many might assume her to be at first glance. So the idea of finding someone perfect of her so easily was again, hard to believe.

Recently, Jordan's agent had notified him that Jordan would be out of town for a while, perhaps a few weeks, due to his mother falling ill. This would mean that there were two options. Cagalli would not date for the month, and her relationship with Jordan would be considered steady, or she could continue to date others during the time.

In his professional opinion, it might be better for Cagalli to keep dating a bit and make sure she really knew what was out there, before settling on a decision. But of course, it was all really up to Cagalli.

Who... He had not seen in quite a while.

Which irked him slightly. Certainly, she didn't have an obligation to go see him if she felt things were fine. And he certainly shouldn't go hunting for her if things were fine. But at the same time, doesn't he have kind of a right to know how it's going? No... it wasn't really a right. It was more of a duty to check in, right? Especially since this was Lacus' friend.

Feeling bad about the lack of communication, he pulled out his cell phone and ran through the address book.

"I don't NEED to talk to her... I just would feel better if I did." he told himself stubbornly, hitting the dial button. Moments later, a familiar voice answered.

"Athrun?"

Slight relief.

"Hey. How's it going?"

* * *

"Hey Lacus?" Kira started. 

"Hm?..." She looked up from the book that she was reading to gaze at the thoughtful expression of her boyfriend, who has stopped typing on his laptop for a moment, and was gazing in no particular direction pensively.

"How long have we been together now?"

She studied Kira for a moment. "I'm not sure I understand where this conversation is heading." Lacus smiled teasingly.

"Ah! Oh no, it's nothing negative, I swear!" He sat up and shut his laptop, then turned to face her on the sofa. Currently, they were in his townhouse, spending time together. He was working on something and she was reading. Quiet time. "I was just thinking, maybe it's time for us to move forward. It's not like I don't like where we are now, but if we could see more of each other... I'd really like that." Kira smiled sheepishly, a blush starting to faintly appear on his cheeks.

"Are you suggesting that we live together?" His ever-patient girlfriend clarified.

He nodded in response. "If you don't feel comfortable with that yet, I completely understand. No rush... Really."

"It's fine with me." Lacus nodded. "So then..."

"I was thinking that you could move into my place." Kira answered, before she even asked her question. Waving his hand around a bit, he noted the plentiful extra space. "I live in a townhouse, so there'd be more room. Also, I think I have more stuff, so it'd be a lot more of a hassle to move it all."

"That's fine by me. My current apartment lease ends in a month, so I'll move in then. And I don't think Cagalli and Athrun would mind helping with the move." She shifted towards him and leaned into his shoulder contentedly. "That'd be nice."

Kira smiled and brought his arms around her in a loose embrace. "Hearing that coming from you, couldn't possibly make me happier."

* * *

Cagalli found herself sitting in the somewhat nostalgic office again, staring at random profiles. Athrun had explained to her, that since she hadn't been dating for very long, while Jordan was gone, it might be a good idea to continue dating others. Hence, she was once more in his office, looking at more eligible men. 

She didn't mind, in fact she thought it sounded very reasonable. At the same time, she was afraid that this might hurt Jordan. But he had more dating experience anyways, so it wasn't really unfair.

More importantly at the moment, was the fact that she was finally seeing Athrun again for the first time in two weeks and he had little to nilch to say to her. It all seemed too mechanical. He handed over a folder with some profiles, and they started going over them. There wasn't that old sense of fun.

She felt somewhat pressed to start up a conversation. But the only thing that she could think of was something that didn't seem right. She desperately wanted to grill him about the things Lacus had mentioned, but couldn't figure out an innocent way to present the topic...

Finally, after almost half an hour of silence, she resolved herself to just go for it.

"So Athrun, how are things with Annabelle?"

* * *

Athrun looked up, as if in startled for a moment. "Annabelle?" 

"Yeah, Annabelle. Jordan's ex. Your half of that double date." Cagalli tried to remind him. Something told her that he had just had a similar reaction as Lacus to the name.

"Oh. Didn't I tell you?"

"Obviously not?..."

"Heh, she was just there for moral support too. She's not looking for a relationship at all." Athrun shrugged nonchalantly.

Caglli's jaw almost dropped. She didn't know that. Jordan never told her either. At the same time, there was slight relief. This meant Annabelle wouldn't be with Athrun...

And... that was weird because... Well, because she was Jordan's ex of course! It was just too coincidental. Besides, after realizing there was much more to Athrun than she had thought, more than ever Cagalli wanted to probe him for answers.

Meanwhile, Athrun seemed a bit distracted. In all honesty, he had almost completely forgotten about that girl, if not for one thing. But that was simply something that happened to be, nothing important. Deciding to take a short break from the pile of papers and photos in front of him, he turned to his computer for a moment.

* * *

"Cagalli? And Athrun?" Kira repeated skeptically. He and Lacus had wandered into his kitchen for a quick snack after discussing minor details of the upcoming move. 

"Absolutely! I swear they might have something for each other."

"I don't know.. they seemed just, friendly when they were talking. Except for that weird comment my sister made...

"It's not so much what they say. especially for people like them. It's.. oh I don't know how to explain it. How they look at each other, how they react to each other... how they ARE around each other. It's all there!"

"So you propose to?..."

"Matchmeddling."

* * *

Cagalli looked up worriedly for a moment. Athrun seemed a bit more distracted, and had started chuckling randomly. "Something wrong?" She inquired. 

"Ah, it's nothing. Just an e-mail from my ex."

"Eh?" Cagalli wandered over to his side of the office, peeking at what he was looking at. They had never talked about his past love life before. "Ex-girlfriend? From a long time ago?"

"Yeah. Want to see?" Athrun asked, shifting over a bit so she could see the picture he had brought up. "We dated in college... So a few years ago."

"It didn't work out?" Cagalli asked, still leaning over his shoulder to study the picture of the girl. She seemed happy and carefree, with relatively long dark black hair. Her arms were wrapped around an equally happy young man, probably the same age as Athrun or herself. Though both were looking at the camera, it was also apparent that they were completely caught up in being with each other. Her eyes, curiously enough, were deep purple, flecked with... grey?

"Well, this picture was attached to an e-mail announcing her engagement to this guy so... yeah. It didn't work out." Another chuckle. Cagalli had the feeling it might have been a bit forced, but she held her tongue.

"She looks very nice, and they look happy." She finally said, after a minute of looking at the picture. She wished she could ask him more, but she didn't want to pry.

Athrun nodded. "We're still friends I guess. We keep in touch. And I'm over it, completely. It's not her that... gives me a hesitant sort of feeling. It's what she represents to me." He explained as best he could. Cagalli tilted her head to the left a bit, a sign for him to continue.

"Back then... Well as silly as this is going to sound, I almost thought that she was perfect for me. And the idea was that, back then I thought if you loved someone enough, they would definitely love you too. Unfortunately, she just didn't love me like I loved her."

He heard an audible sigh from the blond woman beside him, who had already turned away from the screen.

"Look. Unless you're some sort of masochist, the perfect person for you is never going to be someone that doesn't love you back. And even if they partially love you, or love you as a friend like this girl does, if they aren't completely in love with you regardless of whatever little quirks you may have, they still aren't the perfect person for you. Loving you back is part of the package."

"Doesn't that make it incredibly difficult to find someone then?" Athrun smiled a bit, surprised to see this idealist side of her emerge, holding his tongue about his theories until she was finished.

"I know. It does. With this criteria, the standards are high. And you may never find a person that's perfect for you. Heck, that person might not even exist. But right now I'm trying to get as close as I can to 'perfect', and there's nothing wrong with that. If I can find someone that loves all of me, except for just a few silly things, then I'll be happy with that much already. They won't be perfect, but neither am I, so it's not like I deserve perfect anyways."

Cagalli felt a somewhat surprised by her own audacity. Never did she think she would tell anyone her own reasons for not dating, or getting into a relationship. She wasn't even all that clear about them herself... She always thought that people would just say she was too picky, chasing after something perfect. At the same time, she was a realist and knew that there was no such thing. And so she decided, instead of chasing perfect, she'd chase 'close to perfect'.

Athrun was taken aback for a moment, then pondered her words. Even though he knew that she would say something along those lines, he still hadn't expected that. If was as if she wanted to be idealistic, but her rational mind was stopping her. She wanted everything to be perfect, but knew that was impossible and stopped herself.

"I partially agree." He smiled. "There's nothing wrong with trying to get close to perfect. But say I find two people perfect for each other. Like you, they might not think that they deserve it. They'll think that in on order to compensate for their own flaws, they should find someone else that's also flawed.

"I just can't let them settle for less. If both sides settle for an imperfection, then they just see that for the rest of their lives. For me, an ideal couple doesn't need ideal people to make it. Even if two people don't see themselves as perfect, they'll still see each other as perfect. So in that way, the relationship, the two of them together, is still perfect."

"Me, I want to be the best person possible to the person I love. Because then if it still doesn't work it, I know it was never meant to be. If I'm going to love, I want to love completely. I feel like it's the least I can do for that person anyways."

Silence absorbed them for a moment. Both had just confessed their entire outlook on love. Cagalli was left with a lot more to consider, and both felt pretty awkward.

"Ah... sorry I pried into your past like that." She stammered, desperate to break the strange silence.

"No problem. Like I said, I'm just friends with her now. After I realized that she wasn't perfect for me, our relationship kind of fell apart anyways. We were together for a good year or so, then she told me that her romantic feelings for me were gone. It was hard, but we broke up and she found someone else. No big deal... I don't have any deep scars from it. It was an experience."

Cagalli nodded. Clearly his words were meant to make her feel better about knowing so much, but she still felt like she had invaded his privacy. When Lacus said she'd eventually find out, she had been wondering when. She certainly didn't expect it to be so soon. Two heavy topics in one half hour was pretty hard to swallow. more than anything she felt like going somewhere, lying down, and thinking.

She took a final glance at the picture, when something caught her eye. The file name was... Then this girl's name was...

Athrun seemed to catch her gaze, and took a glance at the picture before smiling a bit again. "Yeah... Her name's Arabella."

Cagalli seemed stunned, like how Lacus looked when she first heard Annabelle's name. The similarity was a bit eerie... "Ah, well I have to go now. Looks like we didn't really get anywhere this time, but I'll just leave it up to you. Give me a call when you find someone..."

Athrun nodded. "Sure will. Don't worry about it."

She was already out of her chair and almost across the room when she stopped and turned around with a smile. "it was nice to see you again Athrun. Really." She smiled. "It had been a while... It felt sort of weird not coming here regularly."

The azure haired professional blinked, a bit taken aback, for the umpteenth time today. He broke into a grin and leaned forward on his desk, resting his head on his hand. "Yeah, it was weird for me, not seeing you in such a long time too. I've kind of, grown accustomed to your presence."

Cagalli rolled her eyes. "Same to you, only not so many fancy words. Later Athrun."

And with that, she was out.

Athrun returned to profile browsing, growing genuinely annoyed now. It was never as bad when Cagalli was around. She was a great break form the monotony. But the issue that was bugging him was that after hours of searching on his own, and then another half hour just now with Cagalli, he couldn't seem to find a single person that he thought was worth Cagalli's time.

He was just about to throw out the current profile that he was looking at, when suddenly he froze and looked at it more closely.

Wait a minute...

This was Jordan's profile.

Suddenly, he wanted to hit himself on the head. Of course Jordan was okay for Cagalli, they were fine now. So firstly, why did he pull out Jordan's profile in the first place, and secondly, why did he almost reject it?

Well, Jordan was nice but perhaps too easy-going. He didn't want Cagalli to be with someone that would just let her do whatever she wanted. She could get hurt that way. At the same time, Cagalli certainly had a serious side to her, and perhaps Jordan was too carefree to really understand that.

Yet Cagalli still thought the world of him. This person, who could probably never fully appreciate her.

Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to be able to set up Cagalli with a lot of random people, just so she could see the kind of scum that was really out there. So she could really realize that she was a diamond in a field of coal.

What, hypothetically speaking, would be so wrong with that?... He was the matchmaker.

Perhaps a little matchmeddling might be just the thing needed.

* * *

**So then, Athrun's perhaps up to a bit mischief. Kira and Lacus too?**

**Ahh so I admit, at first the two girls had exactly the same name: Annabelle. But then I thought that would be a little too much, so I changed the name of his ex to Arabella. This name is from Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure", ironically the name of the main character's ex as well. In any case, I wanted their names to be similar to at least bring back some memories for Athrun, but perhaps identical names is a tad too much. **

**Thank you to my reviewers,**

**Air B., ooo, abc, Kathya, Life Is Death, Tetsuni, XxbuffyxX, saPphiRe.'.m0i, cleis, Kitty-Kat90013820, Living Arrow, animemistress419, The Angels' Princess, Kintora, Kkornelia, Garowyn, jackie-88-ac, stuntsheep, ANONYMOUS-gsd, Swt. Harmony, -boos-, Princess Ashes, PINKSISA, The Jackle, 3fi-pina3, frostedteardrops, seiha, gseedlover, Shadow-Naka, ovp, Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan, Vigorian-Asakura, Rayar, asucags, Cari-Akira, JhoanneEricka, hotaru no hikari, thousandbirds, ChildO'God, meowmeowtheblackcat**

**I shall update! I don't know when, or how, but I WILL.**


	5. Ending

Hi Everyone,

So I've had a few people e-mail me or PM me saying that they'd like to see some sort of conclusion or at least see how this will end. This is actually my first logon in years, mainly because I was just going to PM people back with a story ending summary and leave it at that. As it turns out, I had about three pages worth of ending for Matchmeddling sitting on my computer and I felt it would be too much of a waste to 1) type out a summary for something I had written already and 2) not post it.

So here it is, the official ending in its entirety.

* * *

As a set up for what's going on here, Cagalli and Jordan started dating more seriously to Athrun's conflicted feelings. Though he was dismayed by the fact that she was dating him, he's happy that she found someone who treats her well that she likes. Athrun began to date sporadically but couldn't seem to involve himself deeply as he was perpetually comparing everyone he met to Cagalli. In an effort to get over her, he decided to push himself away.

In the distance that grew between them, Cagalli realized that the only reason she and Derek had been going well was from the advice and support of Athrun. And Athrun came to realize that he could not get over Cagalli. In a decision to move forward with both his career and life he chooses to move to another city and start a new branch of his business. Cagalli is upset but assumes that this is merely proof that he never saw her in a romantic way and tries to support him.

At this point Lacus stepped in as a liaison to bridge the gap and encourages Cagalli to break up with Jordan so she can confront Athrun. Meanwhile Kira tells Athrun that Cagalli and Jordan have broken up, spurring Athrun to think he still has a chance.

And so we arrive at the day in which Athrun is at the airport about to leave… and Cagalli has shown up….

* * *

"Hi... I didn't know you were on the market." She laugh pathetically, in a weak attempt to lighten the atmosphere.'

"I wasn't really..." he shrugged."But then I kind of got forced into it..."

"I see... by Lacus too?" Another weak attempt at cracking a joke, to push back the inevitable confrontation. She didn't quite understand the fear inside her.

"Not really... more so you. Not that you really pushed me... but kind of... pulled me along instead." He sighed, struggling with a decent analogy. He smiled weakly, combing his left hand through his hair briefly. "I'm not really good at this, despite my job I guess."

Cagalli let out a lopsided grin. "Did it take you this long to figure out?"

"I've, always known I'm kind of bad at... this kind of stuff. First realizing it, and admitting to it... then confessing it. Maybe that's part of the reason why I wanted to help others do it... But somewhere along the line I guess I have to step up to the plate too, right?

"Right and so now all you have to do is swing." she replied, applying modest encouragement. "I promise I'll pitch you an easy one."

"How much... do you think I like you?"

A startled reaction.

"I... I'm still getting used to the idea."

"Why's that?"

"I think... a part of me was in denial. Maybe just not believing that someone like you could feel anything for me... or maybe just too scared to confront the idea."

"Well, in terms of the first one, I assure you, you flatter me too much. As for the second, if you fear that I'm leading you on..."

"I-I'm really not sure."

"Well then, I'll say it. I do like you. And I suppose this is my sort of last ditch effort into forcing a confession from myself... And so I'm an idiot. Obviously. But I'm hoping I can be a lucky idiot, and catch your eye anyways, because if that happened, I'd be... the luckiest and happiest idiot you'll have ever known. You just have that kind of effect on me..." He smiled, eyes glowing in earnest and relief in finally being able to voice his confused emotions.

Cagalli's eyes were hidden through a blond curtain of hair, as she looked at the ground. A long pause ensued...

In front of him, the woman of his affections appeared to be trembling. He tensed visibly... was she cold? Angry? Frustrated? Confused?...

"I think... Well, I." She swallowed the mass of incomprehensible words in her throat. He was... so good to her. Too good... how on earth would she ever be able to live up to such an expectation? Making him happy...

Athrun shifted uncomfortably, not used to awkward silences in Cagalli's vibrant presence. He took a tentative breath. "Oh... and also, even if you're completely repulsed by me now, for pulling this stunt, I'm hoping you'll still let me be around you. Since if you did that... I might not be lucky, but I'll still be a very happy, idiot."

"It's not poetry, but it's true and about as close as I can get." Athrun confessed, as if apologizing. "Ah- sorry, I interrupted you earlier, didn't I?"

Her shoulders relaxed, and she decided to try her voice again... Trust in what it was going to say... Trust you won't mess up. Please don't mess up... Please get this right...

"I would definitely like to make you happy... And so I promise to try my best. And, I don't know about how lucky you'll feel, but if you'll give me that chance, to try and make you happy... I'd feel pretty lucky too. Because, I'm really an idiot myself." She let out a burst of laughter and looked up at him. Without even fully registering the shocked, yet elated expression on his face she ran towards him, and tackled him with full force.

"Thank you..." she murmured into his shoulder, her voice audibly muffled. His arms tightened around her instinctively.

"That's my line..." He smiled...

They had both found their happily ever after...

In the most unlikely of places.

* * *

This officially concludes this story. Thanks for all your support everyone.


End file.
